Cymbal

Cymbal is a lightning-fast, language-agnostic code indexer built on tree-sitter, designed specifically as an AI agent's code comprehension layer. It indexes entire codebases in ~100ms using SQLite FTS5 storage, performing incremental re-indexing that only touches changed files. Every command returns output in YAML frontmatter + content body format, optimized for LLM token efficiency — agents parse metadata and read content naturally. Cymbal is built for developers and AI agents who need instant, accurate code navigation. It supports 24 languages including Go, Python, TypeScript, Rust, C, Java, Ruby, Swift, Kotlin, Scala, and PHP, using robust tree-sitter grammars for precise AST parsing. With commands like `cymbal search`, `cymbal show`, `cymbal refs`, and `cymbal context`, agents can find symbols, read source, trace callers and callees, perform transitive impact analysis, and bundle everything into a single response. What makes Cymbal different is its agent-native design: deduplication groups identical call sites by file with site counts, so agents see patterns not noise. The cross-reference graph reveals who calls a function, who imports a package, and what breaks if you change something. The one-call `cymbal context` command combines source, types, callers, and imports into a single response, giving agents everything they need to understand and modify code without multiple roundtrips. Cymbal is open-source and free to use, installable via Homebrew (`brew install 1broseidon/tap/cymbal`). It's designed for individual developers and agent frameworks that need a fast, reliable code understanding layer without proprietary lock-in.